João Matos was born in the burnt-out favelas of Novo São Paulo, depopulated during the wars of the Petroleum Era and rebuilt as desperately impoverished as ever. A moreno of mostly African descent, Matos and his family struggled to survive in the shadow of Novo São Paulo's massive arcos. When most of his friends were recruited into the various gangs that skirmish in the favelas, João was approached by a Japanese-Brazilian McDojo operator named Thiago Watanabe. Watanabe was an idealist reformer, trying to get kids out of gangs by teaching them Bushido discipline and self-defense. He convinced João to join, and the young man took an instant interest. He trained in the native Capoeira as well as Karate, Kenjutsu, and whatever else Watanabe offered. Within a few years, Watanabe promoted him to sensei and had him open another McDojo franchise studio.

The high-minded ideals of Watanabe shaped João, and he soon found himself attracted to other pieces of Nipponese culture. He began to style himself as a samurai, wearing hakama and a sword in the streets, driving the dishonorable biker gangs who bullied his streets. This drew unwanted attention from the favela's crime lords, who increased their raids and eventually put a hit on Matos. They burnt down his dojo, killing Thiago Watanabe for having the misfortune of being there at the wrong time. Devastated at the disaster he'd brought down on his own, João fled the favela for Greater Rio.

In Rio, João started taking odd jobs, mostly security work. He made a bit of a name for himself locally with his seemingly unbreakable honor and warrior ethos. João fell in with a zaitbatsu outfit, Tsurogi Industries - a small outpost group since the USSA had officially banned Nipponese imports. The outfit mostly hired natives as grunts, saving the higher rankings for its own. His Nipponese commanders thought João a bit of a bad joke, a mockery of true Bushido. They got to calling him "Obutsu", garbage, saying it's where he came from and where he belonged. Matos nonetheless continued his meditation and samurai sensibilities. His break came when the USSA launched a sting on the outfit and João personally saved the life of a Tsurogi executive, the mononymous Mr. Ken. Ken had João put onto his own personal squadron, a special operations team that did body guard work and whatever else needed done. Ken had João outfitted with the latest cybergear, turning the fighter into an even deadlier weapon. Though he mostly earned the respect of his Nipponese comrades, he couldn't shake the name Obutsu.

The silent war between the USSA and the zaibatsus raged on, eventually driving Tsurogi Industries' outpost out of Greater Rio. The crackdown came down quick and hard, as Tsurogi Industries was a small and easy-to-hit target. Mr. Ken and his executives were arrested in a raid, and his team was dispersed. Matos got out of Rio, heading back to Novo São Paulo where he could find refuge and maybe revenge. After settling in back home and reestablishing his dojo, João began working again, providing security and spec ops to various parties around the São Paolo arcos and beyond. He also began concentrating on parapsychic ability - something that had revealed itself in meditation, though João suspected something of it since his youth.

how about a siebertronian that is hunter/sniper, tracker, survivalist type....so he was designed/raised to be custom guide for a wealthy hunting type. He would travel to the terrain ahead of his boss's hunting party, learn the lay of the land, assess hazards, coordinate with the security detail and then guide the expedition. Recently he has developed a condition, his brain is developing a limit, soon he will be entirely unable to make new memories..like a full usb stick. This character concept takes on two conceits, one the AIs have not fully mastered human vision. Humans actually take in very little information with our sense but our imagination and more importantly our memories fill in the process to allow us "see" the detail we are use percieving. This character will soon be unable to see new things, he will see the person in front of him, but he will see a remembered person. This is extreme example of when everything reminds you of the one that broke your heart. The second conceit is that there is underground or limited access/elities only siebertronian creation guild. They make, raise, indoctrinate and train siebertronians to be servants. "All the loyality of a dog, the imagintation of man and the reliability of a Toyota" (or some other brand).

I like this idea the best out of all the ideas you've posted. Mixing with some of the other ideas you posted: He can have an interest in the NACA and BRR, ties to political groups that want to restore America (cough cough COBRA!!!! cough) There is no reason a sentient machine wouldn't have associations. He could see the ideal of 'murica where everyone was free and all men were created equal, and there was no discrimination just because someone was the wrong skin color, had the wrong reproductive bits, or just happened to have a reinforced polycarbonate skeleton overlaid with a neosilicone hydrostatic gel based skin.

The bits about maxing out his memory capacity is awesome. I would put in his case completely untrue but that's the fun thing about mental illness. He thinks his memory is almost maxed out (Futurama I believe had an episode like this, Farnsworth only had something like 7 inventions left in his mind so he time traveled back to caveman times to avoid depleting his brain) but it isn't. PM me and we can discuss details.

Finally, the abduction, reprogramming and abuse of Seibertronians is something that I will have to investigate because that is just too awesome a premise to not do something with.

Anyways, my guy. I'm thinking a augmen hacker, who does criminal work mostly, but occasionally is hired by the government for mercenary work. Maybe me and Dozus were enemies at some point? Like I was part of a team that was trying to assassinate some guy Dozus was protecting? We could then have some quips relating to that job during the game, which would add some nice flavor. Or we could have done a job together at some point, if Dozus/scrasmax/axelerowe's prefers that.

Anyway, summed up, augmen criminal hacker.

I'd like your character to be a hardware hacker (someone has to bypass those semi-intelligent door locks and retrieve mission data) rather than Matrix style VR hacking. What sort of augmentation are you wanting to have? Cosmetic or something else?

For the siebertronian I would like to drop the political stuff from his personality/behavioral pallet (unless that is essential to the plot than I will joyfully roll with it) . I would like to play him prior to his becoming strongly political. I will pm you stuff about the mental disorder I have in mind, and for appearance I was thinking he could either be humanoid (though not human looking) to aid with dealing with people in his role as a servant/guide. Or I was think he would be a smaller creature 60-80 lbs, spider like, designed to move through the wilderness is a manner similar to his prey.

A built in rifle, nothing fancy, a hunter's model (could drop this if I can't afford it)

Low light and thermographic vision

a sensitive artificial nose

a rigger type remote up link so he can communicate with his client's stereo tactic smart rifle, help his client make a shot

I'd like your character to be a hardware hacker (someone has to bypass those semi-intelligent door locks and retrieve mission data) rather than Matrix style VR hacking. What sort of augmentation are you wanting to have? Cosmetic or something else?

Okay. So I'll be the lock-pick of the group. Fine with me. Anyway, my augmen. Could I have a computer attached to my left arm? If not, maybe something that allows me to hack faster- like improved dexterity in my fingers, and faster speed with those fingers. That is, if keyboards still exist in the cosmic era.

Me having a younger brother... that could work. How would you want to do it? Do you want to have a negative relationship or positive? I could see the potential for both. We could have some dead parent, and we blame each other for the death of that parent, or we could do jobs together, or something. I like the idea of having a negative, hate-hate relationship, and have Dozus be a sort of intermediary between us (and of course have the scene where one of us realizes he loves the other and sacrifices himself to save the other). I could take on the role of protective older brother. What were you thinking on all of this?

I like the idea of having a negative, hate-hate relationship, and have Dozus be a sort of intermediary between us (and of course have the scene where one of us realizes he loves the other and sacrifices himself to save the other)

Do what now?

Here's my thoughts:

a) Seibertronian operative of NACA met Obutsu at a conference between NACA leaders and Tsurogi Industries. Tsurogi was trying to secure a contract arming NACA, Seibertronian was there as a rep and Obutsu as security. Someone either doublecrossed the other and Obutsu had to guard Tsurogi reps from armed NACA assassins (making Seibertronian & Obutsu on not so friendly terms, or a crackdown on NACA dragged Seibertronian & Obutsu into a firefight (in which case they're on the same side). Perhaps Hacker also worked for NACA at one point cracking data.

b) I don't think all knowing one another is essential, per se. Two characters might know each other and have one stranger, or one knows the other two separately (A knows B and C, but B doesn't know C). Or they've all been hired by the same outfit for whatever reason and have no history yet. No need to create convoluted backstories for convoluted backstories' sake. If we all play engaging, interesting characters, they'll interact in engaging, interesting ways, regardless of prior interactions.

For the siebertronian I would like to drop the political stuff from his personality/behavioral pallet (unless that is essential to the plot than I will joyfully roll with it) . I would like to play him prior to his becoming strongly political. I will pm you stuff about the mental disorder I have in mind, and for appearance I was thinking he could either be humanoid (though not human looking) to aid with dealing with people in his role as a servant/guide. Or I was think he would be a smaller creature 60-80 lbs, spider like, designed to move through the wilderness is a manner similar to his prey.

A built in rifle, nothing fancy, a hunter's model (could drop this if I can't afford it)

Low light and thermographic vision

a sensitive artificial nose

a rigger type remote up link so he can communicate with his client's stereo tactic smart rifle, help his client make a shot

mapping software

a built in set of carbon blades for cleaning animals

Skill areas

Cartography

cooking

etiquette training Fire Arms

First aid

Tracking

Stealth

Survival

Knowledge Skills

Animal Lore/Hunting Lore he has hunting stories to tell

Conservation Law

Veterinary medicine

Ecology

I am seeing (and I know you said humanoid but not human) Muldoon, the big game hunter from Jurassic Park. Your original chassis purpose would have been in maintaining an ecological creche, one running to produce game to hunt. Unlike the other 'bots assigned to the station, you woke up one day and realized that you had a greater purpose than checking machinery (basic skill) and riding along as a bodyguard for fat rich people interested in riding out in an *gasp* automobile to shoot a live animal.

I don't know about the rest of that back story, not I will take the name Muldoon.

The two biggest factors to playing a Seibertronian are what your original purpose was. Seibertronians aren't intentionally built, they just sort of happen in production runs of sufficiently advanced androids, gynoids, and mechanoids. The second is raison d'etre, what is your seibertronian's central axis of existence? (you don't have to post it, but it is something that defines the machine life just as eating and mating define organic life.

Also, it's fine if the team doesn't fit well together. It could be more fun if it doesnt. You are going to be the first team that a newbie fixer will have put together, and it will have been on short notice

I've been thinking (world shudders momentarily:)) about my character. I'd like to ditch the augmen aspect of him, and go with just a normal human hacker. As before, he's been involved in crime before, and is a mercenary type guy. I also have one idea about his back-story- I'll PM you the details.

axelrowes- let's ditch this brotherhood thing. We don't have to be related, like Dozus said. And since Dozus has all ready finalized his guy, let's all be strangers brought together by this fixer.

So, here is my guy (that is, if our lord and master of the universe Scrasamax deigns to grant his approval).

Brian Bolles, hacker extraordinaire:

Brian was born in the New York arcoplex to a family of four. He lived near the bad side of town, near where the criminals would play. When Brian was thirteen, his father got involved in a certain gang. The exact events were never revealed, but the police suspected the fire was a result of Brian's father not paying up. Whatever did happen, both of Brian's parents died as their house fell to the flames. Brian was the only survivor. Lacking any relatives to go to, he was sent to foster care, where he became known as a cold, pessimistic, and cynical child. "Who can blame him?" the owner of the foster care, Matilda Watkins, would say. "After all, his house was firebombed. Nasty business."

It was at foster care where he met Lorenz Hoffman. Lorenz was an older child, hailing from Germany, who was involved with another of New York's gangs- the Pure. The Pure were an anti-augmen gang, who regularly attacked augmens, and especially neo-ethnics. Lorenz gave Brian the basics of how to hack. Eventually, after Lorenz passed the Pure's initiation rite, he convinced (easily- Lorenz was Brian's mentor figure) Brian to join the Pure. There, Brian gained a new family.

Time passed. Brian became a better and better hacker. He gained some basic self-defense skills, which is unavoidable when you're in a gang, but not any real skills. He go by with brains and hacking than anything else. Eventually, the Pure treaded on Nip- a Nipponese gang- turf. Gang warfare broke out, and the Pure lost. Brian managed to survive by abandoning New York. It was pure coincidence that a police task force raided the Pure's headquarter the day after he had left.

Brian became a freelance mercenary after that, doing jobs for anyone with money. He cultivated contacts (through which the Fixer that's hiring us contacted him), robbed the rich (not because he's Robin Hood, but because the rich have more money than the poor), and occasionally indulged in ruining augmen and neo-ethnic lives (but not too much, in case the law enforcement got him). His time with the Pure had either enhanced or started his bigotry towards the cybernetically enhanced.

Technical Stuff:Brian typically wears non-nondescript, practical clothes. He can easily blend in if he needs to. All his worldly possessions is in a backpack, that he wears constantly. In it, he has his laptop, an old book on hacking, and his Cardjacker- and, naturally, a cloaked to hide all his illegal stuff. He also has the bland stuff- money, clothes, hygiene, two extra identities, etc. He also bears two knives in special holsters on his arms that he can take out at a moment's notice. His hacking skills easily allow him to get his knives past puny metal detectors any other such devices. He generally only uses his knifes when he has to.

What better time to post my character than after Caesar's "little hater"?

Tel'issare "Blue" Witherwind

'The Eternal Conflict' was the most recent incarnation of the WoW franchise, with more immersion due to better technology; the imagery was exaggerated but strong and catchy.There was the usual fair share of addicts, ones who'd never unplug who'd live on an i.v. drip. Bruno Bilderberg was obsessed as well, that is true, but more with the imagery than with gameplay, and connected to reality well enough to allow his twisted genius to run a megacorporation; at most, his choice of staff uniforms and job titles drew comment. Most corporations don't call their quality assurance officers 'paladins', that's true.

Bruno's restlessness and obsession was furthered by the 'imperfection' of reality, especially the women that a megacorp's head would meet - gold-diggers, social climbers, thoroughbred high society daughters so stuck up they hovered; none had the degree of perfection comparable to his beloved heroines, none teased his fancy as much as aberrant creatures of fantasy.Thus, he ordered one, custom-made: a Draenei, horned and hooved, yet comely and fey, and special in a dozen ways a perverted mind can think of.

He'd wanted his toy adoring and loyal, eager and pleasing, sufficiently smart to entertain.Whether due to dumb chance or by the workings of enemies, the gene stocks used in the lab were not as inteded, but rather from inmates, known for violence, destruction, a malicious intellect and an undimmable independence.Understandably, the behavioral conditioning did not take as well as planned; also, discontent with just owning, Bilderberg delighted in games of humiliation and power. After years of use and abuse at the hands of the plutarch, who deemed himself to be in absolute control, the toy lashed out.No one could have planned or foreseen the outbreak of psychic power that accompanied the backlash, as the slave tore his master into pieces and painted the suite red with his blood.The walls of the manor could not hold the furious psychic, and neither could the response team.

Dazzled by the sights of the arcology, drunk with newfound thought and emotion and roused by the smell of blood, Blue would have been picked off sooner or later, if not picked up by Jerico Crane, fixer, scoundrel and part-time philosopher.Crane immediately saw the benefit of having someone capable of throwing cars (without touching them, too) in good standing.Today, he laughs at the way the blue neo-ethnic picked him up and chided him: "Never approach unannounced." Nervously, the fixer had shrugged and replied: "The streets belong to everybody" and wondered as in a childish way, the blood-stained Blue asked with narrowing eyes: "Do I now belong to everybody?""No, kid, you belong to yourself" was what saved him.

***

Nowadays, Blue is adult in all respects, well-read and thoughtful. Then? While physically mature, Jerico was startled by how ignorant of most areas of schooling and human interaction the runaway was; the areas Blue was proficient in made it obvious that the urchin had been someone's plaything,

They spent years together, Jerico and his gang teaching what they could and would, and setting up the prodigy to work his telekinesis for clients. As an added benefit, if a deal ever turned sour, Blue was there to gleefully tear the offenders limb from limb.

Jerico was primarily out for money; Blue's motivations evolved from gratitude, to discovering pride and a sadistic streak, towards vengeance on asociates of the former owner and corporate slavers, to picking up the cause of neo-ethnics and a general anti-corporate libertarian agenda.Over the years, Blue learned much of subtlety, yet not near as much of sanity. Adamantly refusing treatment with hormones, antipsychotics or tech that would 'mess up my brain', Blue instead rides out each wave, learning to live with the crazy. Perhaps, one day, when the debts are paid and the world a better place to live, with less corporate scum, less slavers, less haters and less people who don't pick up after their dog, the rebel will finally settle somewhere peaceful and fish, or rake sand hence and forth. Until then, you better not phone at the cinema or cut in line.

***

5'11" is not something that makes you stand out - being blue, with curving horns, a few decorative head-tendrils in addition to charcoal hair, and a tail and hooves to boot makes up for it.Tel'issare watches the world with red eyes set in an ageless heart-shaped face with delicate features and cherry lips, very much according to the buyer's wishes.The Draenei's limbs are long - the arms slender slender, the legs and behind muscular, the body slightly femininely rounded.

So, here is my guy (that is, if our lord and master of the universe Scrasamax deigns to grant his approval).

Brian Bolles, hacker extraordinaire:

Brian was born in the New York arcoplex to a family of four. He lived near the bad side of town, near where the criminals would play. When Brian was thirteen, his father got involved in a certain gang. The exact events were never revealed, but the police suspected the fire was a result of Brian's father not paying up. Whatever did happen, both of Brian's parents died as their house fell to the flames. Brian was the only survivor. Lacking any relatives to go to, he was sent to foster care, where he became known as a cold, pessimistic, and cynical child. "Who can blame him?" the owner of the foster care, Matilda Watkins, would say. "After all, his house was firebombed. Nasty business."

It was at foster care where he met Lorenz Hoffman. Lorenz was an older child, hailing from Germany, who was involved with another of New York's gangs- the Pure. The Pure were an anti-augmen gang, who regularly attacked augmens, and especially neo-ethnics. Lorenz gave Brian the basics of how to hack. Eventually, after Lorenz passed the Pure's initiation rite, he convinced (easily- Lorenz was Brian's mentor figure) Brian to join the Pure. There, Brian gained a new family.

Time passed. Brian became a better and better hacker. He gained some basic self-defense skills, which is unavoidable when you're in a gang, but not any real skills. He go by with brains and hacking than anything else. Eventually, the Pure treaded on Nip- a Nipponese gang- turf. Gang warfare broke out, and the Pure lost. Brian managed to survive by abandoning New York. It was pure coincidence that a police task force raided the Pure's headquarter the day after he had left.

Brian became a freelance mercenary after that, doing jobs for anyone with money. He cultivated contacts (through which the Fixer that's hiring us contacted him), robbed the rich (not because he's Robin Hood, but because the rich have more money than the poor), and occasionally indulged in ruining augmen and neo-ethnic lives (but not too much, in case the law enforcement got him). His time with the Pure had either enhanced or started his bigotry towards the cybernetically enhanced.

Technical Stuff:Brian typically wears non-nondescript, practical clothes. He can easily blend in if he needs to. All his worldly possessions is in a backpack, that he wears constantly. In it, he has his laptop, an old book on hacking, and his other tools of the trade (note to self: find out hacker's tools of trade from Scrasamax!). He also has the bland stuff- money, clothes, hygiene, two extra identities, etc. He also bears two knives in special holsters on his arms that he can take out at a moment's notice. His hacking skills easily allow him to get his knives past puny metal detectors any other such devices. He generally only uses his knifes when he has to.

A street level gang banger hacker and door breaker. I like and I think Brian will find a valuable place on the team. Doorbreaker's tools of the trade: Cardjacker (data slate with a plug in card, ala John Conner in T2) this is the main physical tool for hacking doors, work stations, etc. It's loaded with illegal programs and warez. For fun, if you want, the doorbreaker can have a Viral Intelligence (Siri but comical, rude, or whatever) Also a Cloaker that hides Brian's hardware from the data slate to his knives from background and passive scanning.